Home foreclosures nationally soared to record highs during the first quarter of the year.

Late payments also surged, meaning that there's worse to come in the nation's housing crisis.

Increasing numbers of families are losing their homes because they can't make mortgage payments.

But what about here? How hard has the housing crisis hit Lancaster County homeowners?

Someone familiar with the local situation might answer that question with another: "What housing crisis?"

Lancaster is running counter to the national trend.

There actually have been fewer local foreclosures so far this year than last. And there were fewer last year than the year before.

"We don't really know why it's like it is," says Chief Lancaster County Deputy Sheriff Mark Reese, who keeps  records of sheriff's sales of foreclosed properties. "It's kind of weird."

What's most strange is that sheriff's sales here seem to be headed for their lowest total in a decade.

Through the first three of this year's six sheriff's sales, 178 properties have gone on the auction block. If that rate holds up for the rest of the year, 356 properties will be sold altogether.

Last year, 366 properties were sold — the lowest number in nine years. More than half of those properties — 195 — were sold in the first half of the year, compared with only 178 so far this year.

Why isn't Lancaster County reflecting a national trend fired by heavy foreclosure rates in a few states where whole developments are being depopulated?

"It has to do with the mindset of the banks, the mindset of the families who live here," says Frank Cristoffel III, executive vice president of the Lancaster County Association of Realtors.

"Many of these young people were raised by people who said, 'Make sure you can afford to buy it before you go out and buy it.' That doesn't mean we're perfect, but it makes us a little more cautious and conservative."

Observers also say Lancaster borrowers had less opportunity to consider the most radical of the subprime, adjustable-rate loans that led the way toward foreclosures elsewhere. Banks here never offered them.

Both lenders and borrowers are more conservative in central Pennsylvania, says Chad Neiss, of Susquehanna Bank's mortgage division.

"Instead of going after some of the exotic products," he notes, "the lion's share of mortgages here were still fixed-rate products."

In regions of the county where the biggest problems have occurred, Neiss notes, mortgage brokers dominate the lending business. Banks do most of the business here and they tend to be more conservative.

Neiss cites two other factors that have limited damage here: more stable property values and a stable unemployment rate.

Lancaster County did not see the type of unrealistically rising property values that encouraged borrowers, developers and lenders elsewhere to create speculative mortgage arrangements, he says.

And local property values are not falling through the floor now, he adds.

Also, the area's steady economy has prevented job losses that may lead to mortgage defaults, Neiss maintains.

One gray cloud is floating on the area's generally bright housing horizon.

Mortgage foreclosure filings at the Lancaster County Prothonotary's Office  are running at a record high this year. Filings are a preliminary step taken by lenders that may lead to a property sale.

Through the first five months of the year, mortgage holders filed notice of foreclosure on 469 properties. That compares with only 363 at this time last year.

But filings are not foreclosures.

"A lot of (foreclosure proceedings) are stopped," explains Chief Deputy Reese. "These mortgage companies are making every attempt to work with people. I don't think they want these houses back. That would be a headache for them."

There are several reasons why a preliminary filing may not lead to a foreclosure, explains Chris Demko, senior vice president for special assets at Fulton Bank. Residents belatedly may come up with the needed cash or banks may provide some wiggle room.

"Banks will try to work with customers within reason," he says. "That's our standard approach. I don't know if all lenders are doing it the same way."

But lenders cannot reduce the debt of delinquent borrowers, he adds, because that's not fair to other borrowers or bank shareholders.


Staff writer Jack Brubaker can be reached at jbrubaker@LNPnews.com or 291-8781.